The Olden World

by Czar_Yoshi

Your Final Preparations

Starlight kept up her trudge, still carrying Puddles on her back. The corridor was still comprised entirely of knotted pipes, and they continued fusing together the lower she went, having dwindled from hundreds to only a dozen or two large ones.

Since it had entered this last, winding phase, sloping downward without direction and sometimes looping or even spiraling, she hadn't seen any cells, any side routes, or any other signs of life. She wasn't even sure it was a corridor at all; for all she could tell these pipes were burrowed naturally through the ground or even open air in a cavern. Or unnaturally.

Puddles moaned uncomfortably atop her, neither warm nor cold against her coat. Starlight figured she should feel warmer, seeing as she was a pony and it was fairly chilly in the depths, but then again, she was a windigo, so maybe it was surprising she wasn't even colder. Part of her wondered if there was anything else she was supposed to be doing for the mare, but she quickly quashed it. She was carrying her to safety, or at least trying to. It was the right thing to do.

Suddenly, the tunnel ended.

It was a dead end, and not a pretty one. Twin rows of jagged, broken smaller pipes rose from the floor and descended from the ceiling, sometimes branching off from the main pipes or rising between them or connected to nothing at all. They almost reminded her of rotten metal teeth, only somehow fit tightly enough together to obscure anything on the other side... or make it impossible to tell if anything was there at all.

"Really?" She dropped her shadow cloak, glaring at the wall. "I'm going to have to climb all the way back up there because of a dead end? Nnngh..."

Starlight gritted her teeth, wondering if there was a point to insulting the wall, when Puddles spoke over her shoulder. "Ignorance. Apathy. Despair."

The entire tunnel rumbled approvingly, as if a code phrase had been spoken, or perhaps an offering made. Before Starlight's widening eyes, the jagged pipe wall pursed, bent towards her... and melded away, the rest of the corridor coiling and wrapping as it re-absorbed the metal into itself.

"Oh bananas that's creepy," another voice said behind her. "This place is... Woah! Puddles? And Starlight, is that you?"

A batpony dropped down in front of her, furling her wings, and Starlight had to blink for a second before processing that Valey was here. "Valey?"

Valey stared back with equal surprise. "Buh... But Puddles? Sorry, this should be triumphant, but I'm really on edge. And you're gray, and your eyes are weird. Starlight? Like..."

"It's really me," Starlight confirmed, quickly getting her wits back together. "I used the Nightmare Module from a while ago to break out of a cell and found Puddles while trying to get out. She says there's a teleporter at the bottom of this place that will take us out of here. Where did you come from, and do you know where we are?"

Valey seemed on the edge of locking up, though she managed to speak. "Yeah, we're underground in Gyre. Bananas, Starlight, listen: this entire place smells sorta similar to the windigo storm in Ironridge, only it's also making my cutie mark go weird a whole lot harder. Like, I've never felt this before. Can we please not stand in one place and get out? Questions and talking later?" She danced uncertainly, like something hundreds of times her size was threatening to step on her with its hoof already touching her head.

"You want me to turn around? How far is it? It's a long way back up..." She blinked, an idea coming to her that almost seemed more from her Nightmare Module than her own experience, and she held out a hoof, restoring her shadow cloak. "Also, I can do this now. It's my shadow, so you can probably hide on me, I think?"

"Seriously, no time for that!" Valey grabbed her shoulders, looking panicked. "Starlight, I have literally never felt something like this place before. We. Need. To. Go. Now that I've found you, we'll find a way to bail, okay?"

A slight breeze moved up the corridor from below, carrying a single, lonely pipe organ note, and Valey tensed up further.

"Heehee... Relax, cute Valey..." Puddles lifted a weak hoof, patting Valey's mane. "This place is a trap for bad feelings and negative emotions. The more worried you are, the harder it hits you. It's trying to drain you already, so chin up! And the fastest way out is further down, which is spooky but won't hurt you if you keep going and don't sing."

Valey frowned, relaxing only slightly. "Yeah? And how do you know that?"

Puddles bit her lip. "Get Puddles somewhere safe first and she'll say. But you can see it, right? All the cells and all the prisoners? Everyone who's going to be executed for heresy against Garsheeva goes here. A lot of Garsheeva's laws aren't broken with bad intentions, so there are a lot of people who come here with anger and sadness, because they think they're innocent. Originally, this place was supposed to be a siphon that could take away your pain so you could die at peace. Then it... filled up."

Slowly, Valey grew more lucid. "Bananas, that... actually makes sense. Sort of. Although it obviously needs new management..."

Starlight watched her think for a moment, frowned, dropped her shadow cloak, and stepped forward and did the most natural thing she could think of.

"Woah!" Valey blinked as Starlight hugged her. "Uh... hi. Thanks. Maybe not that at ease, yet. Puddles, you're on our side, or something?"

"If you help Puddles." Puddles' ears fell. "She isn't supposed to be here. Thought surrendering to Wallace and Gazelle would go differently..."

"Yeah, you look like you need it." Valey sized her up, poking once at her much-too-thin side. "Like, you look terrible. Anyway. Bad spot for a reunion. You say down?"

"I say down," Puddles confirmed, Starlight standing at the ready to carry her forward.

Valey frowned. "And you're sure whatever's making this place feel as bad as it does isn't exactly that way?"

Puddles giggled weakly. "Oh, Stanza's right up ahead. But he'll leave you alone. He just wants people to sing with him, and his songs aren't very catchy. Probably because Puddles wrote them..."

"You what?" Starlight couldn't look around to give her a look, so stiffened her shoulders instead.

"Long story. Safety first. Mmm..." Puddles went even limper atop her back.

Valey swallowed, gritted her teeth, and stepped alongside Starlight further down the tunnel. The pipe door Puddles had opened closed along behind them, spare scraps of metal uncoiling from the main pipes to form it, and the walls and ceiling quickly widened out around them.

Comments

[Mini-Joe]

stanza time, i hope some characters call him STAN

[cosmofur]

As we all know because it says so right in the description this story is inspired by skirts.....
This chapter really seems to get it right. I'm getting that sort of spooky feeling that some of skirts best chapters gives off. If you read a lot of his work so you know exactly what I mean. Think chained forgotten singing. Or soldiers being led to execution by dragon.

[Boopers]

YES! Cute Valey and Cuddles found each other again, sooo cute!

[Hap]

This is seriously creepy.

[Quinch]

9446823
Plus, his songs aren't catchy.

My name is Stan Z and I'm here to say,
I wanna do a duo with Starlight and Valey.
It dang and pretty cushy being underground,
When those heretics and convicts make such a lonely soubd!